David Black has resigned from his position as President of the QRYA. Members of the Management Committee encouraged David to stay on until after the National Championships next February, but he decided that now is the time to step down. David will continue on with his valuable scorers job for the Nationals and other events as required.

Col Cameron has stepped up from his Vice President's role into Acting President until that move can be formalised at the next Management Committee meeting.

Thank you David for your services over the busy last year and a half and thank you Col for accepting the new position.

It is with regret that BRYC has one less sailor. Paul Newman passed last Thursday.
Paul was a member since 2015 and was new to sailing and took to the boats instantly becoming quite competitive. He held our Treasury for a time and also was our photographer /BRYC web keeper.
Every body who Paul met would offer any help with his launching and setting up his boat . He also enjoyed cruising the high seas with wife Genny ,in fact had only returned a week ago. Paul couldn’t wait to get his boat wet ,so last Wednesday had a very eager return to us and was hard to beat .
We will miss his humour and requests for a coffee, he enjoyed it so much . Our club days won’t be the same.
A Funeral for Paul is set Thursday 1.00 pm at Mt Cotton Garden of Remembrance 20/12/18
RIP Paul Newman.

The DragonFlite 95 (DF95) is now recognised by the QRYA as a State Sanctioned Class. The application submitted to the Management Committee was approved on 7th December, following receipt of the required details from the Class Coordinator.

Age based categories have been used in major sporting events for many years. The Masters Games may be the best known while many large sailing classes have used them for decades.

For 2019, the Australian Radio Yachting Association (ARYA) has accepted a proposal from the Queensland Radio Yachting Association (QRYA) to trial age based categories in the Australian Championships being held in Queensland in February next.

The categories are defined as follows;

Division

Age Range

Open

All entrants

Junior

< 25

Masters

65 - 74

Grand Masters

75+

Please Note:

All Racing will be in Open Division. The normal fleet system will be used and the division placings are back-calculated from the Heat Management System (HMS) results.

Age will be taken from 4 February 2019.

It will be possible for a sailor to win in Open and one of the other categories they are qualified for.

All entrants are in Open Division but on Registration each competitor will be given the option to nominate for one of the age based divisions. Trophies will be awarded at the discretion of the Organising Committee.

Winners will be recognised as “Australian National Champion” of a division.

The fleet comprised a total of 8 boats on the day, with a good selection of designs represented.

The latest 10R State Championships was held off the point at Regatta Waters yesterday, in what I can only describe as a real "mixed bag" of weather conditions. Competitors experienced everything from bright sun to thunder and lightning, and winds that went from zero all the way up to 25 knots.

It wasn't only representatives from Queensland who competed - there were 2 NSW skippers, Gary Bromley with his Diamond, and Ben Taylor, sailing his new orange Sanga for only the second time. Trevor Fisher also sailed a Diamond, and these two designs dominated the event.

Graham Cowling was the first winner in a new category, sponsored by Trevor Fisher, for the first home-designed and built boat. This is a good initiative, which was awarded to encourage skippers to design and build their own boats.

The extreme range of wind conditions necessitated several rig changes during the day.

Greg Torpy was the winner, with 10 firsts to finish up with 18 points from 16 races. Ben Taylor came in second, with 7 firsts, with 22 points. Gary Bromley rounded out the placings, with 7 second placings to finish on 37 points

All in all, it was an enjoyable event for all who competed.

Thanks to Ian Ashe, PRO and David Black, who took care of the scoring, plus the team of volunteers from PRYC behind the scenes who ran the event. Thanks also to the QRYA for securing the venue, the Council permits and managing the Southport Yacht Club relationships.